Those are silk cocoons, spun by silk worms who have fed long and well on mulberry leaves. There is a fire beneath the caldron, and this lady is boiling them in water to make the very end of the strands loosen, all the while stirring the water so that the strand ends will adhere to…
The Taklamakan Desert. Some sources claim it means “Place of No Return”, more commonly interpreted as “once you get in, you’ll never get out.” And you can see why. Which I will be signing at 2pm on December 2nd at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona. Click here to pre-order.
Coal and stovepipes in the Kuche market. Hey, buy one, gotta buy the other. Which I will be signing at 2pm on December 2nd at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona. Click here to pre-order.
Read more It’s all about product placement on the Silk Road.
That would be this shown here with samurai for scale, whose weapon it was A naginata could be over twelve feet in length, butt to blade tip. Other than the obvious uses — stabbing, slicing, hooking, clubbing, kneecapping charging horses, disemboweling and/or beheading their riders — the naginata user’s advantage was by how far it…
So you can get your mule shoed… …and ten feet to your left see this sign… …so while you’re waiting on your mule you can go in and get that pesky cavity in your second lower left molar filled. I sent this photo to my dentist and he reported that that that dentist had…
Read more Shoe a mule or fill a cavity–your choice at the Kuche market.
There’s a scene in the marketplace in Kashgar where Johanna eats bread. Think this bread. It’s what’s for breakfast. Provided by our trusty guide David. Or in Johanna’s case, her friend Fatima’s parents, Malala and Ahmed. Which I will be signing at 2pm on December 2nd at the Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona. Click…
Me in the spice market at Yarkent. Markets are where you see what people are making and buying and selling. People are talking and laughing and shouting out prices and exchanging sotto voce comments with each other on how much they got for that carpet and those chairs and commiserating over the fluctuating price of…
Allow me to introduce you to a silk merchant in the market at Kuche. Yes, those materials were just as blinding to the eye as they are to the camera lens. As she was displaying her wares to us, the muzzein sounded the call to prayer. She held up a hand, laid aside her silks,…
In Turkey, I saw my first caravanserai. It was built in the time of the Seljuks, but the caravanserais in Johanna’s time would have been similar. High, thick walls all the way around–you can see why it looked like safety to Wu Li. There was running water by way of a fountain in the central…
Click here to pre-order.
Read more One of these postcards with every signed copy of Silk and Song.